Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Harvest season is beginning. The corn in the fields that were so rich and green suffered in the blistering heat of a few days ago. Now they are being cut and sent off to the grain bins to become feed for cattle. The soybeans that were once blankets of rich green are now turning yellow and gold, and they too will be harvested and processed for many uses. The gardens which provided tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers and all the fresh vegetables for our tables are ending their growing season and will soon give way to pumpkins and squash and all the final food stuff of this growing season.

Jesus in today’s Gospel shows himself to be familiar with all the plants and crops of his time and place. For him, there is the awareness of a well-tended garden and one that is carelessly planted. We can appreciate all the images he gives us: rocky soil, birds feasting on the seed, weeds and thornbushes choking the plants. This is the way the word of God comes to us and how we can receive it. If we are to be good, fertile soil, we must take care that the Word grows and develops in us and ultimately produces good fruit by our lives so that others are fed. This means that we read the Word, meditate on it, and pray with it, so when others look to us, they will experience the bounty of goodness that we have received from the hands of the Master Gardener. This is the one who, after his life of sharing his love while he was among us, now invites us to come to the garden of the Resurrection, where we will feast at the Thanksgiving Banquet of eternal life.

Reflection by Fr. Martin Demeulenaere, OSB